What is Poverty?: "The Disappearance of the Third World"

In my second book, Faith in the Future: Christianity's Interface with Globalization, I argued that this latest round of globalization (Globalization 3: 1991-present) was ushering in "the disappearance of the Third World."  By this, I meant that we now live in a world where the vast majority of people live decently, if not comfortably in many of the places we used to call "Third World."  The fact is that the average human being today lives longer and healthier than at anytime in human history.  "After thousands of years of virtually no fluctuation, the world's per capita income has exploded since 1800; it is nine times greater today.  While it is true that the rich are getting richer and the gap between the richest and the poorest is widening, it must be noted that the poor themselves are also getting richer" (p. 29).  Today, 70% of the world's poor live in middle-income countries.  That's a huge difference from the world I was born into where most of those middle-income countries were totally poor, "Third World" nations with a wealthy class that was practically unmeasurable.

By this, I do not mean that there are not poor people or poor countries.  What I do mean is that the stagnant view of entire countries being locked in absolute poverty ("poor China," "poor India," "poor Nigeria") is out-moded.  We now live in an era where a country of 1 billion peasants (who were suffering famines and eating tree bark around the time I was born) now have the 2nd largest economy in the world:  China. Just think about that for a second.  The world has changed so that countries can be more quickly upwardly mobile, and most populations in the world do have access to enough food and money--if man-made conditions are right as opposed to the old age where poverty was the norm despite what man did.

Recently I told someone that apartment prices in Luanda, Angola were like  Hong Kong or Paris.  I mentioned rents of $2,000 per month.  Well, I just read an article today saying that rents in some apartments in Luanda are now at $40,ooo per month.  Why? Because of Chinese investment and oil discoveries.  Now of course, Angola is filled with poverty--but it is also increasingly filled with modernity and wealth even amongst the Africans themselves.  Because of this latest round of globalization, it is hard for whole countries, and large swaths of those countries populations to truly be disconnected and poor with no food.

Having been in shanty towns in Zambia, Kenya, China, Guatemala, India and many other places--I'm very aware that poverty exists.  Had I not been adopted, I could be in a shantytown now--if I had even survived my severe case of malnutrition. But today's poverty is often the result of bad governance, personal choice, or cultural factors rather than being the result of a pre-technological age of food scarcity. India has been able to feed its 1 billion people for the past 20 years, but 80% of the food supply is lost to corruption.

In all of these places, you will often find a booming, underground economy full of entrepreneurship. Of course there are places like Somalia, Central African Republic, and Afghanistan--but once again, this is primarily human-inflicted poverty as opposed to man living in areas that are incapable of providing for people. Even Somalia and the barren parts of Ethiopia could survive and thrive in the harshness of the climate in ways that were not possible in say 1700 or even 1980.

Or a quick way to say this is:  the poor people of centuries past would recognize each other, but they would not recognize the majority of today's global poor.

With so many people still calling for huge financial aid packages to third world nations, a study was recently done to find out what poverty really is in the 21st century.  They used a far more nuanced approach to examining poverty which goes in line with where I am at.  An excerpt from Foreign Policy:

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"One reason the poverty trap might not exist is that most people have enough to eat. We live in a world today that is theoretically capable of feeding every person on the planet. In 1996, the FAO estimated that world food production was enough to provide at least 2,700 calories per person per day. Starvation still exists, but only as a result of the way food gets shared among us. There is no absolute scarcity. Using price data from the Philippines, we calculated the cost of the cheapest diet sufficient to give 2,400 calories. It would cost only about 21 cents a day, very affordable even for the very poor (the worldwide poverty line is set at roughly a dollar per day). The catch is, it would involve eating only bananas and eggs, something no one would like to do day in, day out. But so long as people are prepared to eat bananas and eggs when they need to, we should find very few people stuck in poverty because they do not get enough to eat. Indian surveys bear this out: The percentage of people who say they do not have enough food has dropped dramatically over time, from 17 percent in 1983 to 2 percent in 2004. So, perhaps people eat less because they are less hungry.

And perhaps they are really less hungry, despite eating fewer calories. It could be that because of improvements in water and sanitation, they are leaking fewer calories in bouts of diarrhea and other ailments. Or maybe they are less hungry because of the decline of heavy physical work. With the availability of drinking water in villages, women do not need to carry heavy loads for long distances; improvements in transportation have reduced the need to travel on foot; in even the poorest villages, flour is now milled using a motorized mill, instead of women grinding it by hand. Using the average calorie requirements calculated by the Indian Council of Medical Research, Deaton and Drèze note that the decline in calorie consumption over the last quarter-century could be entirely explained by a modest decrease in the number of people engaged in heavy physical work.

Beyond India, one hidden assumption in our description of the poverty trap is that the poor eat as much as they can. If there is any chance that by eating a bit more the poor could start doing meaningful work and get out of the poverty trap zone, then they should eat as much as possible. Yet most people living on less than a dollar a day do not seem to act as if they are starving. If they were, surely they would put every available penny into buying more calories. But they do not. In an 18-country data set we assembled on the lives of the poor, food represents 36 to 79 percent of consumption among the rural extremely poor, and 53 to 74 percent among their urban counterparts.

It is not because they spend all the rest on other necessities. In Udaipur, India, for example, we find that the typical poor household could spend up to 30 percent more on food, if it completely cut expenditures on alcohol, tobacco, and festivals. The poor seem to have many choices, and they don't choose to spend as much as they can on food. Equally remarkable is that even the money that people do spend on food is not spent to maximize the intake of calories or micronutrients. Studies have shown that when very poor people get a chance to spend a little bit more on food, they don't put everything into getting more calories. Instead, they buy better-tasting, more expensive calories."

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The point is that 20th century technologies, combined with better government, and medical and environmental breakthroughs are making pre-20th century poverty obsolete.  This is not to say that the poor don't matter, or that it's their fault.  Rather it is an indictment against the simplistic "Live Aid" approach to poverty:  Raise $50 million and give it to Ethiopia because they are all starving.

In today's world, dealing with poverty means factoring in a lot of human elements in a nuanced way.  Rarely is the problem simply a lack of food and opportunities.  And rarely is the best solution simply giving money.

Oh Canada!

Wow!  What a great time in Canada!  Canada always comes through.  Have I ever had a non-enjoyable moment in the country of Canada?  I don't think so.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, to all who attended the 2011 Theologue at Gardner Bible College. Everyone was so incredibly nice and attentive and supportive.  It was an honor to be there. I got back on Friday evening.  It was a long day.  I finished up the theologue, had lunch with the attendees, cleaned up my room and drove 3 hours to Calgary.  Stopped off at the Olive Garden (YES!!!!!!!!!) for a super quick dinner of infinite pleasure---and then a short stop at the big Canadian Borders-like bookstore (Chapters) and dropped off the rental car at Calgary International.  Eight hours to London, three in transit, and 1hr and 20 minutes back to Berlin.

Marco had just returned from his first ever trip away from home.  His class of 2nd graders spent 2 1/2 days (that is a LONG time) at a camp 2 hours north of Berlin.  We were very much the worried parents...okay I was...and he ended up having a great time.  That night I slept like 16 hours!  And then last night I slept about 3 hours.  So I'm messed up.

It was very interesting to see Calgary.  I never did make it to Banff, but I saw the Canadian Rockies from a distance.  It was nice to see my friends Dan and Laura in Edmonton who are expecting their first child---Patrick or Patrickella in a few months.  Dan is one of only three people that read this diary.  On Sunday I visited Gracepoint Church in Edmonton and was very impressed by Pastor George and the whole ministry team.  The church is really growing and Pastor George's sermon was great.

After Edmonton, it was down to Theologue for 18 hours of Patrick unplugged.  Now they know what it's like to be Jamie.  That's a lot of talking, but this was such a wonderful, receptive, and respectful audience.  I appreciated their attentiveness.

As I told them in Canada, our CHOG connections extend everywhere.  My father was literally born in a broom closet at Gardner College in Camrose, Alberta.  I wish I were kidding, but I am not.  Apparently that sacred spot was torn down once the new buildings were constructed.  Sorry Dad.  But it's true...my Dad is from Canada and was named after Harry Gardner.  It was very interesting to be in my father's birthplace after hearing about it all my life.

Next week I go to Bulgaria to see the cell in a women's prison where my sister was born.

Okay, thanks again Canada!  Unfortunately you gave us Justin Beiber, but it's cancelled out by the fact that you also gave us Rush.

Perugia and Tuscany

On our way out of Rome, we decided to stop in Perugia.  One of the women in the Rome CHOG was from Perugia and talked about how beautiful it was.  The old town sits upon a hill (as is common in Italy) and is very classical Italian.  It was on our way, so we stopped and it turned out to be one of my favorite places.  It was beautiful. Then we headed to Tuscany.  Famous Tuscany--the land of the world's most famous wine.  We were specifically in Chianti part of Tuscany.  This is classic wine country--the Tuscany of movies.  The small medieval towns sit on hilltops and are very quaint and don't appear modern at all.  The fields, forests, and vineyards are gorgeous and the hills rise up to 2,000 feet in some places.

Every drive offers a spectacular view and every once in a while, you pass through  yet another medieval town that may be only a few blocks big.

We spent most of our time in Radda, Castellano, San Gimignano, and the hospital in Sienna (see previous post "High Drama in Tuscany"). I never could decide which town was my favorite.  San Gimignano is probably one of the most beautiful towns in all of Italy.  But Radda and Castellano were smaller versions that were both lovely.  All offer spectacular views and medieval castles.

Rome.. (If You Want To...)

We made it down to Rome for the Easter weekend.  What an amazing time to be in Rome.  With all the Christian history there and the many martyrs that gave their life for the faith---it was very awesome to be in that location for Easter.  Italians are spontaneous, so lo and behold I learned that not only would I be speaking at the Saturday night meeting about the challenges facing Christianity in Europe, but I would also be speaking at the Easter service.  Well, when in Rome...it was an unexpected honor actually.

The Church of God in Rome (not that one, but the Church of God (Anderson, IN), was started 39 years ago.  In fact, this coming Spring, they will be celebrating their 40th birthday and I plan to attend this special celebration.  The church was started by Franco Santonocito.  His son Danielle is not the pastor.  The church has recently experienced some growth after committing to a much more intensive prayer plan, which is great.  As in most places in Europe, the church does not grow as fast as it does in other places for a number of reasons.  Being located in the heart of Catholicism certainly doesn't help either if you are Protestant.

They have a thriving youth group and they have a wonderful worship leader named Marco who is a talented singer/songwriter.  We listened to his CD as we drove across Italy.  The church has a nice spectrum of ages represented and is mostly Italian, with a few Latin Americans as well.  It is located in the city of Ostia which is on the Mediterranean Coast.  It is called the port of Rome.  Although Rome is actually located a bit inland (on the famous Tiber river), modern Rome has grown and made Ostia ( a very old town that goes back to the days of Ancient Rome) a suburb.  So it's all connected now. The church is located in a tough section of Ostia.  On the train, it takes about 35 minutes to central Rome.

We visited some of our favorite sights in Rome to introduce 8 year old Marco (as opposed to 2 year old Marco) to this great city.  His favorite stops were the Colisseum (Ted Nugent was doing a sold out concert......that's a joke people) and the Vatican.  They were setting up for the Easter Service and preparing for the sainthood of John Paul II.

The CHOG in Rome is very well-connected to the Evangelical Community throughout Italy due to its involvement in Rick Warren's programs.  Twice each year, Evangelical leaders from throughout the country come to the Rome CHOG for key meetings.  The CHOG in Rome is currently helping the new Church of God in Arco as best as they can, but there will probably be need for assistance in the future.

On Easter morning, we had a special sunrise service in the park in Ostia.  It was very lovely as Dannielle led us through a service.  It was great to be in Rome on that day and Marco enjoyed his first sunrise service.  We are very much looking forward to connecting with the church there and having our 3W team support our friends throughout Italy.  Already, the Simpsons (Bulgaria) will be visiting the church in the very near future.  We are using our 3W missionaries to visit various locations to build up the inner-connectivity which is a core part of Three Worlds overall goals in Europe and the Middle East.  Thank you Arco and Ostia.  And thanks to all of you for supporting us.

The Leaning Tower of Pizza (I mean Pisa)

On our drive down to Rome, we had to drive through Pisa, Italy so we decided to stop and see the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa.  The tower is indeed leaning.  At one point (I think in the early 90's) it was in danger of collapse, so it was covered up for a long period of time as engineers tried to figure out how to keep it from falling down.  Behold the amazing pictures.  See, in one of the pictures I am leaning against Marco.  Get it? I'm leaning against him.  I'm such a card.  I amuse absolutely no one.

Canada Theologue 2011

I'm off today to beautiful Calgary, Canada.  I will be in Alberta for about a week as I am serving as the guest speaker for the Theologue 2011 at Gardner Bible College in Camrose, Alberta and visiting a church and some friends in Edmonton. I will be giving 10 sessions based on my third book Mosaic on May 10-12th.

The three main areas to be covered are:

The Church of God in Crisis :

The Quest for Health and Purpose:

Is the Church of God Relevant in the 21st Century?

Quite a bit of time will be focused on explaining the Three Worlds of Christianity as well as systematic organizational problems in the Church of God and how districts, churches, and regions can remedy those issues.  Sounds boring doesn't it?  But it won't be, because ultimately, it will be about how the global landscape for Christianity is changing very rapidly.  It will be very relevant for the students at the college, and the administrators and pastors that attend. I don't want to put anyone to sleep.

I'm looking forward to seeing Alberta.  I've never been to this part of Canada.  I'm completely in love with Vancouver, BC, and have a special fondness for Prince Edward Island (East Coast) and Toronto.  But I've never had the chance to see the Canadian Rockies and plains.

More pictures of Italy coming up.

Cinque Terre, Italy

On the way to Rome, we stopped on the Northeast Coast of Italy (the Italian Riviera), so that I could show Marco and Jamie Cinque Terre.  Cinque Terre are 5 little towns built on ocean cliffs.  They are old traditional villages connected by a path that hugs the coastline.  You can walk from village to village along the cliffs.  The cliffs drop a few hundred feet straight down and the hills and mountains are a couple of thousand feet high in the area.  We visited Manarola (the best one in my opinion) and Corniglia.  Manarola is an example of a town set near the bottom of the cliffs (touching the ocean) and Corniglia is an example of one of the five on the top of the cliff.  It is mind-blowingly gorgeous here.   Once again, enjoy my ultra-terrible photos of gorgeous places.

Church of God (Arco, Italy)

The Church of God in Arco, Italy is brand new.  Very few people know of it's existence, but we are planning to change that.  The pastor is N. Lovaglio.  He and his wife Bertha had been living in Venezuela (where she is from) for many years and working with the Church of God there.  Pastor Lovaglio is originally from Southern Italy and after many years in Venezuela, they moved back to Italy.  They spent a few years in Rome attending the Church of God in Ostia, Rome (which you will read about later). But recently, they moved to an Italian city not far from Venice, Italy.  A fellow Evangelical hurch in the Dolomites (that's a mountain region on the cusp of the Italian Alps) had a property that was not needed or used, but which could be used for starting a church.  So the Lovaglio's agreed to take over the facility and start a Church of God.  Thus the Church of God in Arco was born a year ago.  It is a small facility, but very nice and newish--and located on the main road that runs through Arco.  They currently have about 10 people, which, in Europe, is good for a new church.  Real good.  The Lovaglio's speak Spanish, Italian, and Bertha speaks English.  I spoke in Spanish during the Sunday service.  There are Italians, and a few South Americans.

Arco is a small town located by the shores of Lago di Garda not far from Verona, Italy.  Lago di Garda is a tourist magnate as the beautiful blue lake is surrounded by mountains that go straight up 2,000 or 3,000 feet.  This is the kind of place that George Clooney buys property (like Lake Cuomo).  Aside from the mountains, people can sail, hike, ride bikes in this area of lakes, crystal blue rivers, and heavenly vistas.  It is absolutely gorgeous.  The church building is on a main road of Arco.  As we approached the town, we went through windy roads and had one of those breathtaking moments as Lago di Garda opened up before us.  Lord of the Rings kind of territory.  My lousy pictures don't do it justice.

We encouraged the church people and assured them that there will be many people that know about them now and are praying for them as they get started.  I plan to regularly write and call them when in Berlin, and we will make regular visits to them as we do to our other fields (boy do we have the gorgeous fields or what?).  Would you like to help?

Back Home Safe: Oberammergau, Germany Photos

Wow!  We are back home in Berlin!  And the city has changed.  It is back to its ultra-green, beautiful old self.  The trees are full and we live in a forest again.  It's 70 degrees with a light wind. What a nice sight.  And I hate sunshine and blue skies--but even I gotta admit--this is lovely. Well, this was an incredible trip.  I'm not sure I remember a trip where everything was so consistently gorgeous from start to finish (since New Zealand which is Heaven on Earth but unfortunately as far away as heaven from Earth).  I will try and start posting photos regularly to catch you up.  We had internet for very limited amounts of time on this trip and usually needed it for work related issues, so, there's lots of emails to respond to, and of course, diary entries to write.

We'll start with yesterday (Oberammergau) and then go back to the beginning of the trip with the Church of God in Arco, Italy.  It was great meeting these churches for the first time, and it was great having a little vacation there at the end, even though Jamie hurt her foot.  She's feeling better, but still limping around and sore.  Thanks for your concern.

It was also very wonderful to have some concentrated family time.  With our busy, hectic schedules, it was nice to have the 3 of us together for 15 days.  I can tell that Marco really thrived on this time together.  We all shared our 3 favorite things about the trip today on the final drive back.  We all had different things, but I know the best part was being together.  Cue the cheezy 80's music.  Rick Astley's "Together Forever" perhaps?  Maybe 70's would be better.  "We Are Family" by Sister Sledge?  That song was written by Nile Edwards of Chic fame, by the way.  A little 70's/80's trivia for you from the 80's master.

German Alps--Oberammergau

Hello friends.  We are writing to you from the German Alps.  We are half-way home from Tuscany, Italy in the town of Oberammergau, Germany.  This is one of Jamie's favorite places in Europe--and by coincidence, it turns out to be exactly half way back to Berlin from Tuscany...to the minute.  So we are here to rest overnight, before the final push back to Berlin.

It's been an amazing 14 days.  Gorgeous scenery, new church friends, and a burnt foot.  Jamie's in a little more pain as her foot goes through the healing process.  She's limping quite a bit, and her foot looks awful--but I guess it's part of the healing process.

Our final days in Tuscany were uneventful.  We tried to take it easy on our vacation and spent the afternoons usually visiting the various mountaintop castle towns.  But mostly, we just felt wiped out--and in Jamie's case, gimpy.  Tuscany was gorgeous and we were deep into the nature.  Marco said he's really digging this nature thing after nearly 10 years of concrete jungle in Hong Kong.  As we drove through the German Alps, Marco said, "I'd like to live in a place like this one day with all this nature everywhere."  We also drove through the Italian Alps and Austrian Alps today.

For those that are interested:  Driving in Europe

Driving in Europe is not the same as driving in the United States.  Driving in the USA is so easy.  Especially across the USA.  When I was in college it was 2,300 miles home on vacation and 2,300 miles back to college.  I would drive from Indiana to Portland, Oregon doing 12 hour days.  It was no big deal.  It was relaxing and mostly boring.  Of course when we are on home-assignment, the same thing applies.  Long drives--uneventful--easy, relaxing and sometimes boring.

Here in Europe, however, it's a different story.  We find that 6 to 7 hours is the maximum limit that we like to drive because driving is a lot more exhausting in Europe than in the USA.  Here are a few reasons why I think that's the case:

1) Speeds: You are traveling at high speeds (especially on the autobahn).  It's a lot different driving 6 hours at 65 mph. than it is at 135 mph.  Especially when you are constantly having to get out of the way of someone going 180 mph and slowing down for someone just doing 100 mph.  You have no room for error.  You can't space out at the wheel like you can driving across Nebraska.  You have to pay attention because a few seconds of daydreaming can cost you your life at these speeds.  So it is much more taxing on you mentally and physically.  Make sure you slow down for that exit ramp from 140mph down to 40 mph or you'll be a splatter on the wall.

2) Smaller freeways: For the most part, the freeways are a lot less spacious than in the USA so once again, the room for error is small, especially when you factor in the higher speeds.

3) Windy highways and roads: Most of this trip, we were on very, windy roads--often at high altitudes.  I'd say only about 8 hours of our driving time in Italy was on straight roads over the course of 2 weeks.  Most all of the time, we were driving on curvy, two lane roads or windy small freeways.

4) Signs in different languages: Unlike driving across the USA, here you have to deal with the language factors and figuring out exits, toll booths, and other things in different languages.  The GPS helps, but you still have to pay close attention.

5) In case of car problems---you are probably in a remote area where people don't speak your language. In the USA, it seems like there's a gas station, AAA service, a McDonalds, and probably a Target every 2 miles just about everywhere.  Not so in Europe.  The towns are small, quaint, and charming...and often far apart with few stores and many closed much of the day.  So if car problems arise, it's going to probably be a long, complicated ordeal.  For that reason, we don't like to drive at night.

So we got into Oberammergau at 5pm after leaving around 9AM and I'm totally beat from driving.  But we got here with enough time to look around the town.  An interesting thing:

The Uniqueness of Oberammergau

Oberammergau is the sight of a Passion Play that is put on every 10 years.  This has been going on for nearly 500 years in this town.  The whole town is involved in this multi-hour play of the final week of Christ's life. People from all over the world come to watch this re-enactment of the betrayal, trial, and crucifixion of Christ.  Jamie saw it ten years ago.  This past year 2010, our missionaries to Bulgaria, Dave and Kathy Simpson, saw it as well.  Perhaps in 2020 you can see it.  But get your tickets early.  It's a big, big deal.

The whole thing started back in the 1600's when Bubonic plague hit the town.  The town made a commitment to God (we saw the signed paper in the town's church today) that they would put this play on every 10 years.  It's an amazing story.  Walking through the town, the houses are painted with scenes from the life of Jesus and the church inside is gorgeous.  On the large mountain hanging over the town is a cross.

We will post some pictures in the coming days.  We've all really appreciated having this time as a family.  I know it has been really good for Marco to have focused time with his parents.  He and I played a lot of ball on this trip.  We worked on learning how to throw a perfect spiral with an American football and he learned to play catch with a real baseball on this trip too.  That was very fun.

Back to Berlin tomorrow and Canada on Thursday or something like that.